


Tales of a Combat Medic

by OlegGunnarsson



Series: Data Points [4]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Combat, Combat Medicine, Gen, Ghost In The Machine, Rust Devils - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2016-10-04
Packaged: 2018-08-19 13:20:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8210045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OlegGunnarsson/pseuds/OlegGunnarsson
Summary: Curie swore to do no harm. The Commonwealth may have something to say about that.A collection of loosely connected one-shots dealing with Curie in combat.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This will be a collection of one-shot stories that don't really fit elsewhere. Curie just became a synth, and has to deal with that. Other stories will explore her feelings - this collection will explore the more murdery side of our favorite French combat medic.
> 
> Feedback is welcome and appreciated. Updated sporadically.

Curie felt her heart race, and breathed a small sigh of relief. If this had been two days earlier, she would still have been a robot - and her first encounter with these raiders would have been much more worrisome. 

There were three of them, and it was clear they had already destroyed several robots. Curie could see panels of Factory Armor on their backs and legs - the raiders had actually built armor out of the corpses of robots. Robots just like the body in which she had spent two centuries studying medicine.

Despite their heavy weaponry, Curie was strangely relieved that all they could do to her now was kill her. She had no robot parts for them to cannibalize. 

Nora had sent her up a fire escape. Near the top, she would be concealed behind an old HVAC unit, but still have a view of the battle. In their bags was a small hunting rifle with a rudimentary scope, and Nora’s prized 10mm pistol, the Vault-Tec logo still etched into its grip. That pistol had been her lifeline as she escaped Vault 111, and it had saved her life many times since. Nora’s modifications had only made it deadlier.

Curie was surprised she left it behind when she went to deal with the raiders. But Nora had heavier armaments, now. In addition to the assault rifle she carried on her back, Nora was holding a powerful laser rifle given to her by Paladin Danse of the Brotherhood of Steel. Both would be useful today. 

Curie had insisted on joining her, but Nora would hear none of it. “You’re still getting used to that body,” Nora had said. “And after everything you went through to become a synth, I’m not going to let you get hurt or killed if I can help it. Besides, we don’t have any replacement parts for you.”

Nora smiled, placing a hand on Curie’s shoulder. “I’ve handled worse than these on my own, don’t worry. But if something does happen, head west three blocks, then run south as fast as you can. Get to Diamond City and find Piper. She’ll know what to do.” 

“I will not leave you, Madame.” Curie said. There was no fear in her voice, but the fact that Nora had a plan for her own death worried Curie a little. 

“Don’t take any risks. If they get me, I’m got. Don’t let them get you too.” 

“Oui, Madame.” Curie agreed, reluctantly. 

Nodding, Nora gave her shoulder another squeeze, and then she was off. Nora climbed the rest of the way up the escape, then traversed the roof of the building to the escape on the other side. She planned to approach the raiders from behind - they were looking East, as if they were waiting for something or someone. 

Curie lost sight of her quickly, but then she saw her dart across the street further down. She took a knee behind a small hedge, and took aim with the assault rifle. At that distance, with the amount of practice she had had, this shot was an easy one for Nora.

Curie saw the shot’s effects before she heard the report - and one raider’s head turned to a fine red mist. Curie did not know how to react, and so did not. The voice in her head, however, was another matter.

_ <Combat mode initiated,> _ she heard. 

_ Good morning, G5. You have been quiet today,  _ Curie responded. 

_ <I’m still getting used to this - but being the Ghost in your Machine has its perks. For example, I never realized how sensitive my ears were until you took over.> _

G5-19 had escaped the Institute six months before, almost dying in the process. She had travelled for a time with Glory, of the Railroad. For whatever reason, the Institute made recovering G5 a high priority, and three times they attacked her location in force _.  _ The Railroad had lost a safe house in one of those attacks, and almost lost Glory and G5 as well. 

It got to the point that G5 decided to have her memory wiped, so that she could vanish. Unfortunately, the procedure was a failure, and the synth’s mind was wiped entirely, with no possibility of implanting new synth memories. 

There had been little hope of recovery for G5-19, until a robot expressed a desire to become a woman. Curie’s core programming could take over G5’s functions where synth programming could not, and Curie was transferred into G5-19 - the body she was now learning to control. 

What they did not realize is that part of G5 remained behind, in a partitioned memory core no one even knew existed. Curie would not delete the fragment, considering it murder - and the fragment would not consent to exile, considering it torture. So they reached a compromise, and Curie gave G5 access to her senses and memories, in exchange for G5’s advice and aid in adapting to personhood. 

Curie had expected that there would be a period of adjustment - she was getting a new body, after all, one with biological functions and emotions and everything. What surprised her was that G5 had some adjusting to do as well. G5 had spent 6 weeks of actual time in total sensory deprivation, and having her senses back was a bit overwhelming. Add to that the realization that Curie’s core programming doubled the efficiency of her senses - she did more with the same amount of data, so to speak. The combination was almost too much. 

_ <Don’t be alarmed, Curie - but I’m going to close my eyes and meditate for a while,> _ G5 had said the night before, and Curie agreed. G5 had studied something called Zen, and Curie was eager to learn about it someday. The way G5 explained it, she would sit and tune out what her senses told her, until she could focus. It was like picking one conversation out of a room of a thousand people, all talking at once.  _ <The trick,> _ G5 had said,  _ <is to listen.> _

It was her sight, however, that interested G5 at the moment.  _ <She’s good.> _ G5 thought, seeing Nora take down a second raider. 

_ That she is, _ thought Curie. They watched as the third raider, the one with the ridiculous eyebot helmet, turned and ran away. 

Nora walked slowly down the street, past broken robot parts and the remains of two raiders. She looked up at Curie, then held up her hand and signaled.  _ Wait there for me, _ Curie interpreted the signal for G5. 

_ <No argument here.> _ G5 agreed, as Nora went to chase the third raider.  _ <Why didn’t she kill the second raider, though?> _

Curie looked closely at the second raider. Nora had shot him in the left thigh and the right shoulder. A third shot had been deflected by the raider’s helmet. The raider lay on his back, in an expanding pool of blood. Curie could see the leg wound. A close look at the raider’s neck confirmed her diagnosis, and she shook her head. 

_ The victim was struck in the left femoral artery, and blood is no longer coming from the wound. There is no visible pulse, and the angle of the head and neck would render a pulse visible at this distance. He is deceased.  _

She could almost sense G5 nodding to herself.  _ <That makes sense. But then who the hell is moaning?> _

Now that G5 had mentioned it, and now that there was no gunfire, Curie heard the low moan. Tracking the sound, her eyes went to the bushes behind a dumpster across the street. She saw a small movement that could not be accounted for otherwise, there being no breeze to speak of.  _ Mon Dieu. _

Curie slung their pack over her shoulders and dropped down the fire escape. Sprinting across the street, she found a settler laying in the bushes, moaning. He had been shot in his left forearm and right shoulder, and had bruises on his forehead. 

Curie knelt at the edge of the street, reaching into her bag for a stimpack and bandages. The man was stirring, and she did not want him to move until she got him bandaged. “Monsieur, lay still.” she said, placing a hand on his chest. “You are safe, for the moment.” 

“Ugh,” he replied. “They shot me,” he muttered, weakly, as if he were half asleep. 

“Monsieur, you have been shot, oui, and I believe you have a concussion as well. Please stay still. I am a doctor, I am going to treat you.” 

_ <Look at his forehead please,> _ G5 thought. Curie glanced up, then went back to bandaging the arm. G5 couldn’t take control of her eyes, so if she wanted to see something she had to prompt Curie. For now, a glance was enough, and she was busy. 

_ <The bruise is rectangular. They hit him with the butt of a pistol.> _ G5 said.  _ <I bet they were here waiting for somebody, and he wandered up like a fool. Or they shot him before he even knew they were there.> _

G5 didn’t know anything about entry wounds, but Curie did.  _ His arm was shot from its underside. He had put it up to protect his face. Then he fell backward and hit his head. They silenced him shortly after.  _ She paused.  _ Why not kill him? _

_ <They had bigger fish to fry,> _ G5 replied.  _ <I wonder who they were waiting for?> _

Curie said nothing as she finished wrapping the arm. It was not broken, but even with a stimpack it would hurt like a bitch for a while. The settler had calmed down as the medicine took hold, and was now lying still. Curie continued to check him for other injuries. 

G5, meanwhile, couldn’t shake a vague worry that there was more to this. She turned off her access to Curie’s vision, and just focused on noises. She could hear a laser rifle to the east, and angry shouts as a man returned fire.  _ <That’d be Nora,> _ G5 thought. 

_ Oui, _ agreed Curie. It sounded very much like Nora had everything under control. But then Curie had a vague feeling of uneasiness, and reached down to her right side for the 10mm pistol. 

Suddenly, Curie became hyperaware of her surroundings. The feeling was both eerily familiar and totally alien to anything she had experienced. She felt like her vision had gone to the black and white of her robot days, even though she still could see in full and glorious color. She had eyes now, not cameras. 

Her right hand lifted, and she rotated her torso to the right, following the pistol’s aim. She pulled the trigger three times, then raised the pistol to the sky and removed her finger from the trigger. 

The raider did not know she had heard him until it was too late. His jagged metal sword dropped from his hands, and he crumpled to the pavement, a look of surprise still on his face. 

Curie was also surprised - she hadn’t known what she was doing until it had been done.  _ What is this? _

For all of Curie’s shock, G5’s voice was icy and calm.  _ <I heard footsteps. I heard him coming up behind you. Behind us.> _

_ Oui, but I did not - I was checking this man’s vitals. I did not even realize I was holding the gun until after we had killed the raider.  _ Curie’s confusion turned to panic.  _ What happened? _

_ <Curie, that’s what I’m saying. I heard him - I was monitoring our hearing, remember? I can only see what you are looking at, but I can hear everything at once. I heard him and thought “Shoot.”> _

Curie could picture G5 shaking her head.  _ <Curie, the instant I thought shoot, your hand went and shot. I don’t understand it, and can’t figure it out.> _

Curie’s eyes became wide, as the implications hit her. “It’s because I am a robot.” she whispered to herself. 

“Oh for fuck’s sake lady, not you too,” grumbled the settler. He put his uninjured arm over his face. 

G5 got it, however.  _ <Your core programming?> _

Curie nodded to herself.  _ My tactical functions were all automatic. I would identify a threat and neutralize it without thinking - the sensors and my weapons did the work.  _

She looked at the dead raider.  _ I had worried about developing reflexes, so that I would not be a burden to Nora and the others.  _

_ <Mission Accomplished,> _ G5 thought with the equivalent of a laugh. 

_____

The settler was sitting up when Nora returned. Curie had cleaned the three raiders of ammunition and supplies, and had strapped a nasty-looking sword to her back. Seeing the third raider, Nora put the picture together quickly - of course Curie would not have left a civilian untreated. 

Nora looked the straggler over. He had large pieces of shoulder armor and a gaudy metal helmet that covered the back of his neck - but, critically, not his face. His chest was almost unarmored. He had had more caps than the other three combined, and had a note that talked about recruiting for a group called the “Rust Devils.” 

_ Great _ , she thought.  _ More raiders. Just what the Commonwealth needs. _

When she saw how the raider had died, she could not stop herself from whistling. One round had gone right between the poor bastard’s eyes, and two more were in the 10 ring, as Nate would have put it - direct shots to the heart. 

Any one of those shots would have done the job, especially with the raider’s light armor. Curie hit all three, and did so before the raider even knew what was coming.  _ That’s good shooting. _ Nora looked over at Curie, and her eyes went to that sword.  _ Is that salvage, or a trophy? _

Curie helped the settler stand up. Rick lived nearby, and had foolishly wanted to salvage parts from the robots. He didn’t expect raiders to be there too, and got shot for his trouble. Nora agreed to escort him back to his home and his wife. 

As they walked, she looked at Curie. “Are you ok?” 

“Mais Oui, Madame.” Curie replied. 

“You’ve had hands for two days, so I have to ask you - where did you learn to shoot like that?” 

Curie gave her a grin. “General Atomics taught me well, Madame.”   
  
  



End file.
